Introduction

Human rights are rights held by every person. “Universal” means that they apply to all people. Religion and gender do not matter. Human rights have raised debates from the moment people started using the phrase. Let’s focus here on the last 75 years since the end of the Second World War. As globalization has connected the world, human rights have become a common world language of what is right or wrong. As they’ve spread, so have questions over what they mean and where they apply.

The second half of the 1900s saw the rise of international groups like the United Nations. Countries signed international treaties made to solve big problems. The problems included war and treating people unfairly. Among these treaties were the first international agreements about human rights.

Universal Declaration

In December 1948, 48 national governments came together. They agreed to recognize the equal rights of “all members of the human family.” Recognizing universal rights was necessary for “freedom” and “peace in the world,” they said. The terrible violence of the Second World War led to the meeting. The winning nations wanted to define the rights which all people deserve. These include the rights to freedom and to gather peacefully. They include the rights to an education and social protection. What’s more, people must not be arrested without a reason. They must not be enslaved or tortured. This document became known as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).

In 2018, the United Nations celebrated the 70th anniversary of the UDHR. Then, human rights scholar Ved Nanda warned that the UDHR is not being followed:

“Human rights abuses continue from Asia to South America, to the Middle East and Africa. However, the declaration has inspired those fighting for civil rights. It encompasses the simple yet powerful idea that that all human beings are born free and equal.”

This op-ed was written by a man born in India while the country was still under British rule. His message was a warning: the world is failing the Declaration of Human Rights. But it was also a message of hope: the document itself is a guiding light.

Universal Tensions

Human rights activists around the world responded quickly to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). South Africa was criticized in the United Nations General Assembly. The country had an apartheid system. Apartheid is racial segregation in South Africa. In 1950, the General Assembly declared that apartheid is wrong. The United States and European empires were also accused by their citizens of mistreatment.

The governments in question, however, pointed to the UN Charter. The UN Charter said that human rights are important. It also said that state governments have the right to do whatever they wanted in their own borders. Supporters of human rights claimed that the new UDHR placed human rights outside of national law. They faced one major problem, though. The UDHR was not an official law. This meant countries really did not have to follow it. And it’s very hard to make someone do something they don’t want to do— especially if they also command an army.

This hasn’t stopped people from trying, though. Since 1948, most nations in the UN have signed dozens of human rights treaties.

Universal or relative?

There are two different views on human rights. Universalists are one group. Cultural relativists are the other. Universalists believe that human rights are the same everywhere and should be applied the same in every place. Cultural relativists believe that human rights should be understood differently in different places and under different conditions.

Cultural relativists argue that human rights are based on European values. They say human rights allow countries to force their culture on others. Universalists claim that cultural relativists want to continue old practices. Practices, they say, that are unfair to women and minorities.

The language of human rights does reflect Western values. For example, many treaties discuss individual rather than collective rights. Individual rights are shown in the Declaration of the United States. Still, many non-Western people had key roles in shaping human rights. The Chinese scholar P.C. Chang is an example. He helped write the UDHR. His group received help from the “Committee on the Philosophic Principles of the Rights of Man.” This committee studied belief systems around the world to advise the writers of the UDHR.¹

Globalization and human rights

Globalization has certainly helped spread the idea of human rights. But has globalization actually improved human rights?

The answers to this question are not clear. Globalization has connected more of the world than ever. It is easier now for people to see when governments create human rights problems. Activists can livestream the government’s bad actions. This has happened in Iran’s Green Movement and Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement. But governments have access to the same technology. States can use technology to spread bad information and monitor people.

Many argue that globalization has lifted more humans than ever before out of poverty. Healthcare, clean water, and technology have spread to new regions. Democracy has spread around the world. Today, more than half of all people live in a democracy.

But inequalities have increased between people and nations. Large corporations take advantage of poorer parts of the world. Almost half the world lives on less than $5.50 a day. Over two billion people live on under $1.25 a day. Some people question if universal human rights are truly the experience of millions of people in the world.

1 Historians still debate this committee’s findings. Some argue that the committee connected modern human rights with traditional belief systems. This created a “myth of universality”.